Various surgical procedures are routinely carried out intravascularly or intraluminally. For example, in the treatment of vascular disease, such as arteriosclerosis, it is a common practice to invade the artery and insert an instrument (e.g., a balloon or other type of catheter) to carry out a procedure within the artery. Such procedures usually involve the percutaneous puncture of the artery so that an insertion sheath may be placed in the artery and thereafter instruments (e.g., catheters) may pass through the sheath to an operative position within the artery. Intravascular and intraluminal procedures unavoidably present the problem of stopping the bleeding at the percutaneous puncture after the procedure has been completed and after the instruments (and any insertion sheaths used therewith) have been removed. Bleeding from puncture sites, particularly in the case of femoral arterial punctures, is typically stopped by utilizing tissue puncture closure devices, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,090,130 and 6,045,569, which are hereby incorporated in their entireties by this reference.
Prior closure devices, such as the ones described in the above-mentioned patents, place a sealing pad at the tissue puncture site. Deployment of the sealing pad involves ejecting the pad from within a device sheath and compacting the pad down to an outer surface of the tissue puncture using a compaction member. After the sealing pad has been compressed against the tissue puncture, the suture is manually cut by the operator at a location outside of the patient.